Bessemer Venture Partners promotes Caty Rea to Vice President

At Bessemer, we partner with inspiring founders across every stage of their business building journey. In this spirit, we celebrate Caty Rea on her career as an investor and her promotion to Vice President. Since joining the firm in 2021, Caty has supported companies across the spectrum from seed to growth and buyout deals, bringing a strategic lens in partnering with founders building enduring businesses.

Caty primarily focuses on enterprise software investments across vertical SaaS and fintech. She particularly focuses on investing in industries undergoing an inflection point in their adoption of technology solutions, such as construction, energy, and law, where startups are well-positioned to replace legacy solutions and provide a radically better experience for customers. Having first started her career in consulting at McKinsey & Company, where she advised Fortune 500 companies on their strategy and operations, she saw firsthand the challenges many of these incumbents faced by startups offering better experiences and products for customers. This inspired her move into venture investing to support founders driving change in their industries.

A highly analytical investor with deep expertise in software, Caty specializes in working closely with portfolio companies on their finance and operations to help them with their transition from early-stage, high-growth startups into enduring businesses. To this end, she recently co-wrote and launched a guidebook for CEOs on how to drive profitable growth with 40 tactics garnered through working with the Bessemer portfolio.

In addition to her experience investing across stages, Caty has also worked across geographies, including the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Latin America. She has invested in and supports Bessemer’s investments in Litify, ComboCurve, Capmo, Fulcrum, Sign In Enterprise, and Ada in a board member or board observer capacity.

“Caty possesses the qualities founders want on their team—an understanding of how to scale a software business and visibility into the metrics that matter,” shared Brian Feinstein. “She's an invaluable member of the Bessemer team and brings thorough diligence skills, a great sense of humor, and an ability to work with companies of all stages that is inspiring.” 

Caty has co-authored several leading Atlas reports for the firm. She co-wrote and presented the 2022 and 2023 States of the Cloud, where she helped define the Centaur status and build the Centaur database, and she helped author the revised lessons of vertical software.

“I have the best job in the world,” said Caty. “Meeting inspiring founders who have a unique insight on the world and collaborating with them to help them achieve their goals energizes and inspires me every day. It’s a true privilege to support this next generation of entrepreneurs.” 

After working at McKinsey & Company, Caty transitioned into venture capital at General Catalyst’s Rough Draft Ventures and Highland Capital Partners. She also spent time in operations and marketing at startups in the U.S. and Germany. She received her bachelor’s degree in Government with a secondary in Economics and citations in French and German at Harvard University, and later an MBA with Honors from Harvard Business School. In her free time, Caty can be found reading, golfing, and hiking outside San Francisco in the winter, or kayaking and sailing on Cape Cod in the summer.